Eight Tournaments. Eight Different Winners.

The Picture Of Parity

May 09, 2007|By DARRYL SLATER Daily Press

SBS Open

Creamer rebounds from tough 2006

Paula Creamer didn't like how her 2006 season went. She finished 11th on the money list and didn't win an event after finishing second and winning twice in 2005. But Creamer started 2006 with a promising performance, sinking a 40-foot putt on the 17th hole of the final round of the SBS Open to edge fellow 20-year-old Julieta Granada by one shot. It was a fitting ending to Creamer's season-opener, because she worked during the offseason on the tempo and rhythm of her putting.

1. Paula Creamer -9

2. Julieta Granada -8

3. Karrie Webb -6

4. Lorena Ochoa -5

4. Janice Moodie -5

4. Morgan Pressel -5

Fields Open

Prammanasudh earns second win

Before 2006, Stacy Prammanasudh never finished better than 37th on the money list in three seasons on the LPGA Tour. Then she finished in the top 10 six times in 2006, equaling her previous career total, and finished 18th on the money list. She shot 66-68-68 in the Fields Open to beat Jee Young Lee. For as well as Prammanasudh played in 2006, she didn't win and hadn't won since 2005. She birdied the first two holes to take a two-shot lead on Sunday in the Fields and led the rest of the way.

1. Stacy Prammanasudh -14

2. Jee Young Lee -13

3. Ai Miyazato -11

3. Morgan Pressel -11

3. Angela Park -11

MasterCard Classic

Unknown tops No. 1 in playoff

Playing in just her fifth LPGA event, Meaghan Francella went swing- for-swing with one of the best women's golfers in history -- and won. Francella hit a five-foot birdie putt on the fourth hole of a sudden- death playoff to beat world No. 1 Annika Sorenstam, who came into the event with 69 career victories to Francella's zero. Francella had made the cut just twice before the MasterCard, but one of those was a career- best, 14th-place finish the previous week in the Fields Open.

1. Meaghan Francella* -11

2. Annika Sorenstam -11

3. Angela Stanford -8

3. Kyeong Bae -8

3. Stacy Prammanasudh -8

*Won in a playoff

Safeway International

Ochoa atones for collapse

On her way to becoming one of the best female golfers in the world, Lorena Ochoa endured her share of collapses. A memorable one happened at the 2005 Safeway. She squandered a four-shot lead over the final three holes and lost to Annika Sorenstam in a playoff by hitting her tee shot in the water on the first playoff hole. Another collapse seemed in the works when Ochoa, who entered the '07 Safeway final round up four strokes, fell down by two to Suzann Pettersen after 13 holes. But Ochoa birdied four of her final five holes to win.

1. Lorena Ochoa -18

2. Suzann Pettersen -16

3. Laura Diaz -10

3. Jeong Jang -10

5. Catriona Matthew -9

5. Sophie Gustafson -9

Kraft Nabisco Championship

Youth reigns in major

Morgan Pressel became the youngest player to win an LPGA major, getting some help from Suzann Pettersen, who blew a four-shot lead with four holes to play. Pressel shot 69 in the final round but was three shots off the lead when she finished. Few could have predicted that she would emerge from the clubhouse to jump into Poppy's Pond -- the traditional victory celebration at the LPGA's first major of the season. Pressel will turn 19 on May 23. This was her first LPGA win.

1. Morgan Pressel -3

2. Catriona Matthew -2

2. Brittany Lincicome -2

2. Suzann Pettersen -2

5. Stacy Lewis -1

5. Shi Hyun Ahn -1

5. Stacy Prammanasudh -1

5. Meaghan Francella -1

Ginn Open

Another win for a young American

Brittany Lincicome, 21, became the fifth young American to win this year, beating Lorena Ochoa to capture the $2.6-million Ginn -- the LPGA's third-richest purse. Lincicome bogeyed the last hole and shot 72 on Sunday, but Ochoa double bogeyed the last hole and shot 77. The other young American winners this season: Paula Creamer (20), Stacy Prammanasudh (27), Meaghan Francella (24) and Morgan Pressel (18). If Ochoa had won, she would've taken over the No. 1 spot in the world rankings. She remained at No. 2.

1. Brittany Lincicome -10

2. Lorena Ochoa -9

3. Laura Davies -7

4. Juli Inkster -6

4. Nicole Castrale -6

Corona Championship

Cavalleri spoils Ochoa's day

Silvia Cavalleri became the first Italian winner in LPGA Tour history, spoiling the day for Lorena Ochoa, who was playing her first tournament as the world's No. 1 ranked player and who was playing in front of her countryman in Morelia, Mexico. Cavalleri made seven birdies in her bogey-free final round of 66. A crowd of thousands, including Mexico President Felipe Calderon, crowded the 18th hole to cheer Ochoa, whose closed with a birdie to shouts of "Mexico! Mexico!" and "We love you, Lorena!"

1. Silvia Cavalleri -20

2. Lorena Ochoa -18

2. Julieta Granada -18

4. Pat Hurst -15

5. Na On Min -13

Semgroup Championship

Kim makes amends, wins in a playoff

Mi Hyun Kim won a playoff on the first extra hole with Hall of Famer Juli Inkster to become the first South Korean to win on Tour this season. Kim missed a 5-footer for birdie on the 18th to force the playoff with Inkster, who had birdied the hole minutes earlier. On her second try at No. 18 in the playoff, Kim sank a 4-foot putt for par after Inkster made bogey in Broken Arrow, Okla.